"October comes with rain whipping around the ankles in waves of white at night..." *

It has suddenly – literally overnight – become autumn.

The Baby is decked out in corduroys and a striped sweater. I had to dive into my scarf drawer last night to wrap up my throat to go out (my neck and ears are perpetually cold).

My drink of choice now is hot tea, although the boys clamor for hot cocoa.

We got three squash and another head of cabbage from our CSA; we are having baked butternut squash and sautéed spinach and zucchini pancakes for dinner tonight, maybe with the last of the tomatoes. I am riffling through Nigella right now to decide on a dessert: gingerbread maybe? Lemon syrup loaf cake? Plain ole pumpkin pie?

Now I wish my oven were in my kitchen and not in my basement (which was a blessing all summer).

I am finally again looking at the yards of fabric that are almost my living room curtains. I need to buy curtain rings and do some ironing but otherwise the cozy suede-y chocolate brown drapes will be up soon, blocking out drafts.

The porch furniture can be stacked up and covered for the winter now. And we had to go buy a new rake as our old one had mysteriously disappeared and the leaves are beginning to drift down.

I do believe this weather is what has restored my reading mojo. What better to do in cool weather than curl up in bed under a down comforter and read, cup of hot tea close at hand?

I tried to go buy a sofa today but I couldn’t seem to get to IKEA so that will have to wait, but this weather calls for a sofa as well, stocked with cozy throws and preferably in front of a nice fire (I am pricing vents and gas logs...)

Bring on the fall, I am ready.

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* Louis MacNeice [one of my favorite poets]
"Autumn Journal", IX